The present invention relates in general to the field of remote data acquisition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a remote data acquisition and transmission system and method and, specifically, such a system for monitoring and control of vending machines.
Over the past decade, vending machine manufacturers have developed new and innovative vending equipment in response to market needs and vending operator demands. These innovations have been, for the most part, adopted by the beverage vending industry. This trend has been influenced by the accelerating rate of technological innovation in the electronic and electromechanical component industry. The availability of new technologies has given vending machine manufacturers the tools to address many of the requirements of vending operators. Advances in electronics are now enabling the use of computer controls and data acquisition systems directly inside the vending machine. Some of the latest vending machines now make it possible for vending machine operators to download sales, inventory, and machine health information on-site onto portable computers.
Although these computerized systems make it easier for operators to gather and analyze data, they generally do not provide the real time capabilities that are needed to make a major impact on their vending operations.
There currently exist some remote data capture systems in the vending industry. Examples of such systems include the systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,608,643; 4,766,548 and 4,412,292. Most of the conventional systems make use of point-to-point data acquisition systems that use a wireless data transmission system to receive and send information from/to individual vending machines. Some of the systems use wire-line data transmission systems (e.g. telephone lines) instead of a wireless one. The wireless point-to-point systems are hampered by the relatively high cost of long-range wireless transceivers at each of the vending machines. Further, the systems that implement long-range wireless transceivers at each vending machine have a severe limitation in that they cannot be made to function properly in locations that do not have a clear RF path to the central base station outside the building, perhaps even miles away. For example, if a vending machine is located deep inside a building the ability to transmit/receive data to/from the outside of the building is hampered by the signal attenuation caused by the building""s structure. On the other hand, the wire-line systems suffer from high infrastructure costs given that dedicated wire must be drawn to each vending machine in order to create the point-to-point data link. Establishing a wire-line system is often a difficult task and frequently limits the ability to move associated vending machines from one location to another location. Thus, these conventional remote data capture systems generally do not adequately fill the needs of vending machine operators.
In accordance with the present invention, a remote data acquisition and transmission system is disclosed that provides advantages over previously developed remote data acquisition systems. In one embodiment, the remote data acquisition and transmission system is for monitoring and control of vending machines. The remote data acquisition and transmission system allows vending machine operators to gather data from the field without having to manually retrieve the data from the vending equipment and to transmit data to the field such as price changes without having to visit each vending machine. This ability will generally lead directly to improved sales and lower operational costs by enhancing a manager""s ability to direct operations and react quickly in order to correct problems.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the system comprises one or more application controllers and an application host. The application controller or controllers are interfaced with remote equipment from which operation data may be acquired and information transmitted thereto by each application controller. Each application controller communicates with an application host via a local area network, and the application host can communicate with a network operations center using a wide area network interface. The system may include a local area network (LAN) with one unit and its associated application host or multiple units and associated application hosts.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a remote data acquisition and transmission system is provided for vending machines. This system comprises a plurality of application controllers. Each application controller interfaces, via a serial interface to a vending machine controller, with a vending machine from which operation data is acquired by the application controller. The system may also comprise an application host that communicates with the application controllers via a local area network. The application host comprises a wide area network interface for communicating with a network operations center. The network operations center communicates with the application host via a wide area network to receive the operation data acquired by the application controllers and to manage outgoing messages and/or data. Further, the application controllers and the application host operate to autoconfigure the local area network upon initialization, and the application controllers operate as relays when necessary to establish communication between the application host and other application controllers. In addition, the network operation center maintains a database storing the operation data and providing secure third party access to the database.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for remote data acquisition and transmission. The method includes interfacing a plurality of application controllers with remote equipment from which operation data is acquired by the application controllers. The method further includes communicating between an application host and the application controllers via a local area network, and communicating between the application host and a network operations center using a wide area network interface. Technical advantages of this embodiment of the present invention include the use of local wire-line and/or local-area wireless transmissions to implement a local area network (LAN) between multiple vending machines. This provides a remote data acquisition system for vending machines that overcomes the limitations of current point-to-point systems by establishing a low-cost LAN that can then communicate externally using a long-range wireless or wire-line communication system. For example, a narrowband PCS wireless link (e.g., wireless two-way paging network) can be used between a remote vending machine LAN and a network operations center to establish an efficient and low-cost wide area network (WAN) which connects remote LANs together to form a larger network.
Additional technical advantages should be readily apparent from the drawings and description.